Web 2.0 Best Practices

I stumbled on the UBC Admin Blog thanks to Martine Lafleur who shared its link on Twitter.

Yesterday, I took the time to explore this recently launched group blog aimed at enabling further dialogue between senior administration and students at the University of British Columbia.

While president blogs have been around for some time (President Michael Crow from ASU was one of the trailblazers, President John Meada at RISD has also been doing a great job at blogging), I hadn’t come across a blog by senior administrators that hold as many promises as the UBC Admin Blog (Well, Joe Hice’s Hice School is also a great blog, but I’ll put it in another category as Joe is a communicator by trade).

Frankly, what I found really surprising and interesting in the UBC Admin Blog was to find UBC VP of Finance, Resources, and Operations among the bloggers.

In those tough budget times in higher education, it’s pretty rare to see the people in charge of budget cuts get up front and personal to try to initiate open dialogue with students and other constituents.

The UBC Admin Blog — The administration connecting with students online.

Anyway, here are a few things UBC is doing right with this blog:

• A short video introduction from each blogger on the About page of the blog.
  It helps put a face on a name and can also help promote civility by reminding readers they are interacting with real human beings.

  Here’s the video introduction from Pierre Ouillet, the Finance VP.

• A great moderation policy highlighting in plain English what is ok and what is not when it comes to comments and available from one of the top navigation tabs of the blog.
  
• A conversational tone as shown in the first post written by Ouillet, From transparency to dialogue, and the direct reply to the comment of an international student about budget on his second post.

What do YOU think? Has your institution done something similar? Let us know by posting a comment!

As you probably know, I’ll be hosting “Start the (Word)Presses: How to create the online version of your print magazine or newsletter with WordPress” next Thursday (Jan 21st).

I designed this 2-webinar series to help magazine editors get a good and practical understanding of how WordPress can help them create an easy-to-produce online version for their print publication.

But, “why should magazine editors and writers use WordPress in the first place?” some of you might ask.

Here are my top 4 reasons:

WordPress is an online publishing platform
Yes, this one sounds obvious. However, it’s important to state that WordPress has been designed to publish timestamped articles that can be categorized and tagged with meta data (articles which are usually called blog posts). While publishing an online magazine requires a special kind of themes (i.e design templates) to break away from the blogging format – where everything is presented in reverse chronological order, many of these themes are now available for free or a fee. A knowledgeable web designer can also design a brand new customized theme.
As a result, many big and small online magazines are powered by WordPress in higher education and elsewhere.

WordPress offers several options when it comes to web hosting
Since it runs with PHP and MySQL, WordPress cannot work out of the box on any campus server (requirements for the latest version of WP can be found online). However, it can run on many servers (even on Windows servers although this requires a work around for rewriting web addresses produced by WP).
Your IT folks don’t want to hear about WordPress on THEIR servers? No problem, you can actually get a web hosting shared account and ask the person in charge of your DNS to help you set up a sub-domain such as magazine.universitydomain.edu that will point to your shared account IP address. It might sound complex, but it is really easy and quick to implement.
The person in charge of the DNS isn’t cooperative? No problem, you can decide to buy a domain name for your magazine and use it when you set up your web hosting shared account or even use wordpress.com as your web host and buy an upgrade to use your own domain name.

WordPress is simple and easy to use… and to customize
Once everything is set, adding and editing articles is a breeze. No need to know (or remember) your HTML as WP comes with a WYSIWYG editor that won’t scare the editorial team. Add a headline and the body of the article, pick the category and select a few tags… and you’re done.
With the different roles that can be assigned to your WP users, you can even simplify the backend for your editors or writers by showing them only the options they need.
Depending on your theme, you can also easily add a search box, republish the content of an RSS feed, a bit of text or HTML by using bundled widgets that can be just dropped into different areas of your theme.

WordPress is really a MULTIMEDIA publishing platform
Want to add pictures to your articles? No problem, you can upload them ahead of time or as you write (or paste) the text of your article. You can even perform some basic editing on your pictures within WordPress.
Want to add a YouTube video? With WP 2.9 and above, you can just paste the web address of the video and WordPress will take care of the rest.
Want to add an audio file, a photo gallery or slideshow? Several WP plugins can help you do it with just a couple of clicks.

Do YOU use WordPress for a magazine?
Tell us why you chose it by posting a comment!

I don’t know about you, but I’m always excited by the world of possibilities a new year offers. So, let me wish you the best for 2010. I gotta feeling it’s gonna be a good, good year (can’t you see me singing to the famous tune of the Black Eyed Peas?)

I’ve got a few resolutions (although I prefer to call them goals) put on paper.

What about you?

If you plan to add an online presence to your print magazine or newsletter (or even go totally digital), I’m sure you have already heard about the WordPress platform that powers some of the best digital magazines out there.

Well, if you want to find out how to create the online version of your print magazine or newsletter using WordPress, I have exactly what you and your team needs:

Start the WordPresses, a 2-webinar series including a live presentation on January 21, 2010 as well as a pre-recorded demo walking you through all the steps to set up your WordPress magazine. Here’s the description of this upcoming webinar series hosted by Higher Ed Experts.

Start The (Word)Presses:
How to create the online version of your print magazine or newsletter with WordPress
January 21st, 2010 – 1PM-2PM ET as well as an on-demand pre-recorded demo.

With tighter budgets and deadlines, more and more institutions recognize the need to improve the online versions of their magazines and newsletters.Many have chosen WordPress to get the job done. It is a very popular online publishing platform, because it is powerful, flexible and open-source.

Directed primarily to non-technical users, this 2-webinar series offers a step-by-step walkthrough of how to create the online version of your publication using WordPress. Find out best practices and useful tips to simplify the process. Tracy Mueller and Jason Molin from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business will also share with you a selection of WordPress themes and plugins to get you started.

What you will learn:

• How to install and setup WordPress
• What are the best practices to publish with WordPress
• How to select and use themes and plugins to simplify and speed up the process

If you register at www.higheredexperts.com/startwordpresses by January 11, 2010, you’ll get free access to the following on-demand 3-webinar series (a $350 value) until March 31st, 2010:

“Why and how to go digital with your magazine or newsletter” recorded on July 7, 8 & 9, 2009

This is a 3-webinar series that will show you why more and more higher ed institutions have gone digital with their news-oriented publications. It will also help you get ready for an eventual switch from print to electronic or to better integrate both media at your institution by sharing winning strategies, lessons learned and practical advice from editors of higher ed digital magazines.

• Going Paperless: How to prepare and survive the transition from print to digital
  John Lofy, Editor of Michigan Today, will explain why and how his 40-year old alum magazine took the paperless route by switching to a web magazine combined with an email newsletter. He will share lessons learned, practical tips and advice to prepare and survive this major change.
• Paper and Pixels 101
  Bonny Griffith, Editor of Fuse at Ithaca College, will tell you why and how her 2-year old hybrid print and digital magazine helped her institution reach prospective students. She will also share some winning strategies to integrate and optimize efforts using both media.
• The Editor’s Guide to the Digital Galaxy: How to edit a paperless and multimedia magazine
  Karl L. Bates, Manager of Research Communications and Editor of Duke Research will explain what it means to go from print to digital for writers and editors. He will share practical tips, winning strategies and useful pointers to write and edit a multimedia, digital and paperless magazine.

Have you watched “Reading Season, The Musical” yet?

This YouTube video was brought to my attention yesterday over Twitter via a quick post from TargetX Jeff Kallay.

As you’ve probably noticed, I always try to keep an eye on online videos produced in higher ed.
So, I watched it and immediately felt compelled to share it over Twitter:

Twitter / karinejoly: Wow, Udel has some real talent in the Admissions Office

This morning, I even got an email from a reader of the Higher Ed Experts newsletter who felt the same way and shared the link to this video.

It’s fun, under-5-minute long and is a great behind-the-scene look at the work done in an Admissions office at this time of the year – which is probably why it’s resonating so much within the community with more than 3,000 views on YouTube at the time of this writing.

That’s why I emailed Avi Amon, the UDel Admissions Counselor behind this video to ask a few questions about it.

1) Why did you decide to create this video? What is its target audience?

It’s an idea I’ve been toying around with for awhile, honestly. It’s always been a dream of mine to pursue composition full-time and/or write musical theater. I’m currently taking composition classes at Delaware in addition to working full time. I figured that creating this video was a perfect way to combine these segments of my life! My colleage and co-lyricist/performer, Drew, was an immeasurable help during the whole process.

While the primary target audience is definitely other college admissions counselors and high school guidance counselors, I think the humor and concept is broadly appealing. Students and parents have also left us very wonderful comments!

2) How did you produce it? How long did it take?

We actually have quite a bit of A/V equipment in our office for other marketing purposes. We’re in the process of making videos for all of our majors on campus to better educate and engage prospective (and undecided) students. I’ve learned that the key to good video is good audio, so we took care of that in my roommate’s mini-recording studio (which happens to be in our living room!) The video was shot on one of the office’s HD cameras and we edited it all down using Final Cut Pro at the University of Delaware Library. It took a weekend to plan, shoot, edit, and execute.

3) Was it a side project or something meant to be part of UDel recruitment strategy?

Definitely a side project. Drew and I had to come up with a short activity for our annual staff retreat and this is what happened! That being said, if the project continues – which I plan on – and other videos are made, it could definitely be used as a part of a grander University of Delaware recruitment push.

4) What kind of feedback did you get so far?

People have been LOVING it! And not just on campus either. It’s received some national attention from NACAC, TargetX, and plenty of other admissions offices around the country. We’re at 3000 hits and it’s only been 3 days since we published it!

I also think that the recent success of Glee (one of my favorite shows on TV) on FOX has contributed to our viewership. America is a very ‘musical’ place right now so it seems like the right climate for a project like this.

My latest UB column is now available in the November/December issue as well as online: “How to YouTube with Success: Six tips for optimizing online videos”

Here are the 6 tips:
1. Get listed on YouTube EDU.
2. Make videos that are easy to share.
3. Choose keyword-rich titles, descriptions, and tags for the videos.
4. Produce context-rich videos.
5. Don’t ignore your most fervent video fans—and critics.
6. Add closed-captioning.

University Business: How to YouTube with Success

I wrote this column a couple of months ago, after writing this post on how closed captioning can make a big difference but long before YouTube made an important announcement about new features using speech recognition on November 19: auto-timing and auto-captions.

Auto-timing will automatically synchronize your text-transcript with your videos.

Auto-caps will do ALL the work and is already used by several institutions such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Yale, UCLA, Duke, UCTV, Columbia, etc.

You can find out more about these features by watching this video from YouTube:

BTW, if you are a University Business reader who has just discovered collegewebeditor.com, welcome! Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.

It looks like the incredible success of the lipdub produced by students from UQAM in Montreal, QC (more than 2.5 million views as of this writing) has pushed some institutions in the US to finally join the university lipdub movement.

Texas State University in San Marcos did its lipdub on November 8th in the LBJ Students Center with about 30 students. Lisa Duncan, University Marketing videographer was behind the camera.

Twitter / kymfox: @TXSt students are doing a lipdub

The lipdub is available on Vimeo:

Texas State University – San Marcos Lipdub

There is also an interesting making of produced by the University Star, the student newspaper, on YouTube:

At the other side of the country, in Boston, Suffolk University students got their lipdub done on November 11th with about 50 of them and the help of the university communications office. They used a mash-up of songs from Queen for the music – a first for University lipdubs.

Jessica Krywosa, director of Web Communications at Suffolk, shared the link to this lipdub yesterday over Twitter and was kind enough to answer a few questions about it via email.

Twitter / Jessica Krywosa: Suffolk University Lip Dub …

1) How did the Office of University Communications work with student organizations? Did the students have full creative control?

We reached out through the student activities office on campus who worked with student groups to find interested parties. We also reached out via Facebook and Twitter to any student on campus. There was combined control: students had input on everything from the song chosen to the choreography and characters.

2) How many students took part in the lipdub and how long did the project take?
50 students and staff members participated. It took 6 weeks of work and 4 hours of work. It was shot on November 11th in three takes.

3) Why did the Office of University Communications decide to support the project and host it on its YouTube channel – which is a first?

The Comm office is the centralized office for all university social media efforts. We drive the strategy for the university brand in all instances, including online. The Comm office created an integrated social media strategy and therefore uses ‘their’ channels as the ‘Official University’ channels. We do not own the channel from an office standpoint but as a repository for collaboration: we channel all university video content there for greater reach. Same for our Flickr, Facebook and Twitter accounts, instead of segmenting it as ‘our’ office channel, we created it for everyone to supply content to and create a community around.

4) What is your take on the issue of copyright for the music? Is it the reason why you used a “mash-up”?

What we produced is a mash-up and we hope that it produces a greater interest in Queen and in Suffolk University but we certainly understand the limitations of the digital millennium copyright act. We could be asked to remove it. We aren’t charging for this content or using it for commercial purposes. As with all of the university lip dubs, they used copyrighted music (Black Eyed Peas, Thriller, etc) and are still on YouTube today.

While doing my research yesterday on YouTube, I stumbled upon the following 4 new university lipdubs of interest produced in the past few weeks in Japan (as an homage to the one done by UQAM students), in Quebec and in South Africa.

My new UB column is now available in the October issue as well as online: “Social Media Measurement 101: A seven-step plan to set up (and benefit from) a simple social measurement program “

Here are the 7 steps:
1. Define measurable goals for social media activities.
2. Choose key performance indicators (KPIs) carefully.
3. Plan ahead and properly set up the right measurement tools.
4. Capture the data at preset intervals.
5. Don’t forget some benchmarking.
6. Share your measurement data.
7. Use measurement data to craft your next moves.

Social Media Measurement 101

If you are a University Business reader who has just discovered collegewebeditor.com, welcome! Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.

Have you seen Bates College’s new homepage?

You should check it out. It is really different and innovative.

Bates College

Not because it uses fancy graphics or animations, but because Jay Collier and his team at Bates College have decided to make this redesigned homepage more than just a collection of the usual navigation scheme, useful links and beautiful campus photos.

So, what makes it so different?

Among other things:

• The way stories – real stories about students, faculty and staff told through blog posts, photos and news in a section called Bates Views – are featured on this homepage.
• The navigation scheme
• The dynamic information architecture
• The use of photo galleries including shots with short captions telling the full story


Bates College

Really beautiful and thoughtful work, which is why I asked Jay Collier 3 questions about this project.

1) How long did it take from concept to the implementation of this first phase?

The Home 4 project took 8 months, from kickoff to final launch. It was built upon the listening sessions I convened with students, staff, faculty, alumni, and parents in 2007 and 2008, and a whole domain blueprint was released in September 2008.

Concurrent with this process, I recruited and hired our first new staff member, producer/designer Ethan Dahlin Magoon, who took on the interface design in April. After releasing several prototypes to the campus community, W3Markup did the base theme coding and Ethan expanded it to dozens of templates for the launch.

Integrating an overview of Bates with almost 1,000 categorized and tagged stories made my work developing the information architecture and writing and editing content more challenging. However, doing so was necessary to get across our primary organizing principle: that there is a common approach to learning at Bates which is experienced in countless ways, throughout a Bates lifetime. We are fortunate to have been able bring together content from news releases, the Alumni Magazine, the Viewbook, the monthly newsletter, student and parent handbooks, and other sources all in one place. I think that was a somewhat unusual opportunity.

2) What do you use for the CMS? The overlay pictures?

We have been managing the site in WordPress since the beginning, first as a proof-of-concept with student assistants at WordPress.com, then as a working prototype with WP 2.8 software on an external hosting service, and now hosted on a campus Web server. We’ve had over a dozen professional staff members and student assistants creating and editing content during that time, and now Ethan works concurrently in the system on interface updates.

We use a series of plugins to manage content and presentation. The slideshows are handled with NextGenGallery, with the overlays via Thickbox and jquery. We’re using a number of plugins to enable shortcodes for editors along with WP-Table Reloaded for organization of tabular data originating in DabbleDB. We had over 30,000 views on launch day — about double the load of an average day — all served by WP-SuperCache.

Supporting standard protocols like RSS means our stories — via hundreds of category and tag feeds — are available for almost any interest. By way of example, see how our NetVibes page at Explore Bates surfaces content from both Home 4 and collections curated in Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube. (We feature links to social services in every page footer.) I also integrated Google Maps, Zoomifyer, and Flash PanoToVR into the editorial. We also worked hard on validation and accessibility so that Home 4 will be welcoming to visitors with a variety of interface preferences. Of course, we have much more to do; we released Home 4 when the bulk of editorial work was done — but before all of the interface design and coding was complete. Version 4.1 is already underway.

3) In your presentation post, you’re hinting that you want to follow the iterative redesign philosophy for next phases. How do you plan – concretly – to do this?

Just as the master plan for an historical village envisions how people will relate and move through their environment as changes are made over a long period of time, so, too, can principles of an online experience define how we make future decisions that will support the effortless movement of our constituents through the online ecosystem.

In my domain blueprint, I recommended that online relationships with the College grow deeper along smooth pathways across systems and services, rather than leaping over walled gardens. Home 4 demonstrates both a point of entry as well as moving our constituents toward deeper engagement with the College in their areas of interest.

As to getting it done, the next phase in the blueprint is The Hub, where offices and departments share their official information about people, ideas, and events. I use the MIT discovery framework and ActivCollab to manage projects, and most of the planning documents, including user scenarios and feature requests (detail) are complete. We already collaborate with the people who manage subsites in our legacy content management system, and we know their hopes and challenges. Supporting the second-impressions they manage is the next logical step.

The future online ecosystem is not monolithic, but, more and more, will be made up of many interoperable services, on-campus and off. As long as we support basic principles of content exchange, we can integrate the online experience to support multiple pathways of deepening engagement.

Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business has used online videos to promote its Graduate Program in Business Administration with great success.

I stumbled upon this mini-series composed of 4 different YouTube videos last week and found it very compelling.

Really great work and great acting talent.

That’s why I contacted the manager of Concordia’s YouTube channel to find out more about it.

Shelagh Peden, Information & Project Coordinator at University Communications Services, was kind enough to answer my 3 questions over YouTube messaging system.

1) Did you use real students?

Yes, all subjects were JMSB undergrads (one non-JMSB) who showed interest in the program. They volunteered (not paid), and the whole thing was coordinated by a co-op student, including training the actors.

2) How did you promote these videos?

YouTube, GDBA website, Facebook, LinkedIn, our blog, sent to our alumni and friends (no print, all web-based and by word-of-mouth). The videos were also used the info sessions as an icebreaker, and someone went from class-to-class making 5-minute presentations. Most views of the video were through Facebook.

3) What kind of response did you got from prospective students? Were you able to trace any application to this initiative?

The program received more *qualified* applications than can be accepted (170 vs. 150). We didn’t specifically track applicants, felt it would be awkward to ask if they were swayed by video when it’s a graduate program.

This is our first program that targets Millennials (no ads in newspapers, just web-based).

YouTube – ConcordiaUni’s Channel

Last week, Andrew Careaga, director of communications at Missouri S&T, shared on his blog a really great video his team had developed to be played at convocation at the request of the alum association.

Didn’t get a chance to watch the video?
Take 4 minutes to watch a really cool take on 140 years of history at Missouri S&T:

This video was the result of the hard work of Mindy Limback (who wrote the script) and Tom Shipley, Mr. Video Production at Missouri S&T. Tom was nice enough to answer a few questions about how this video was produced, so you can enjoy a behind-the-scene look and learn from the following interview.

1) What was the purpose of this video?

The purpose was to give new students a brief summary of the history and traditions of the university to help them feel a part of the Missouri S&T family from their first day. To do this we decided not to do a traditional, serious recounting of our history but produce a fast cut and hopefully contemporary look at our university’s history in the context of what was happening in the rest of the world. The video will also be played at alumni section events to show what we are doing to bring new student’s into the S&T family.

2) How long did it take to produce this video? Can you please describe the process including the time each phase took?

The process took about 6 weeks from initiation of the project to the finished product. This included many evenings and weekends as I was under a hard deadline. Being a “one man dept.” and having experimented a lot on this project it would be difficult to come up with an allotment of time for each phase.

Many hours were spent online looking at video currently being produced for the age group… roughly 17 to 18 year old engineering students. There was also a lot of time spent looking for royalty free resources such as fonts, frames, grunge marks, paint splatters, backgrounds and other graphic elements for use in the project. I selected many more “parts” and images than I needed knowing that once I got into compositing some would work and some wouldn’t. In the process I also looked at a lot of tutorials and other materials for the various effects plug-ins I use with my compositing software, finding several that had elements I could modify to match what I was seeing in my minds eye. Not surprisingly some of them triggered new ideas for the final look.

I began with the the narrative and a rough storyboard describing the images I would use for each sentence. I did this in Excel. I then started with the audio track. I use voice talent from ProComm as they have a broad range of voice styles to chose from, are reasonably priced, and delivery is fast. After an afternoon of online auditioning of voices I booked a session, emailed the script, and directed it via speaker phone. Shortly after finishing the session I was able to download the completed narration and imported it into Final Cut Pro. At that point I cut the narration into short bites and loaded these into discreet bins along with the images I had selected for the bites. This is a great way to organize a project, especially if much of it will go to compositing, and it helps establish the flow of a piece from the very start.

At that point I began auditioning music tracks and added anything I thought would work to a Final Cut music bin. All of my production music resides in iTunes which helps speed up the auditioning process. I import music into iTunes as .aif files for fidelity. After selecting several cuts I listened to them with the narration. It usually required several tries and occasionally going back to iTunes to get music beds that I felt worked with the narration. While the music bed often comes as an afterthought to many producers, I feel that the influence music has on the emotions is so strong that I always lay it down with the narration and edit to it. I believe this further enhances the flow and sets a mood as I edit, adding an additional emotional component to the process from the beginning. In education we seldom have the luxury of having music scored to our edit so we must edit to the music to keep our work from having a cold “industrial” feel.

Once the rough audio track was laid down I began bringing in the respective images. While some of the images used in this project were video clips and needed no manipulation, the majority of the images were stills and would end up being composited in Adobe After Effects. I brought these stills down to the program line as place holders. This, once again, helped establish the flow and aided in determining if the image really did work with the narration. This also addressed any issues regarding the length of time an image would be on screen. It also exposed any “holes” that existed. Because these were to be composited I usually brought down only the primary image at the beginning. Using this method also makes it easy to move parts of the narration forward or backward in time to match the music or interact with a shot, greatly enhancing the feel of the piece.

At this point the project was comprised of narration, music, video, and placeholder stills. I then began to import the still images to be composited into After Effects. Because the project had been broken into workable segments and placed in bins it was easy to use Final Cut’s “reveal in finder” function to find and import the images, even if I had misplaced them. I also brought into After Effects the rough mixed audio which I had laid off as a mono work track for the purpose of timing. After the composites were complete and rendered I imported them back into Final Cut, placing them in a “render bin.” Then I brought them down to the timeline for final trimming and editing. At times it was necessary to go back into After Effects to make adjustments or create a better transition. There were also a couple of composites that were totally re-done once I saw them in the context of the finished edit.

Once the edit was completed I used Apple’s Soundtrack Pro to add some sound effects. Whooshes, thuds, crashes and anything else that was appropriate. In this video I even used gunfire, a police siren, and a telephone busy signal to add touches of humor to shots that needed to be bumped up a bit.

3) What tools/software did you use?

The tools I used were pretty standard fare. While I am fortunate to have a fairly powerful production package, any Macintosh capable of handling the above software will be sufficient for a project of this type. It just means render times will take a little longer.

Editing hardware:

• A dual Quad Core 3 GHz Intel Mac with 2 Apple Cinema Display monitors and 32 gigs of memory
• A Kona 3 card for preview to a broadcast monitor
• An XServe Raid for storage

Editing software: Final Cut Pro 6

Image creation and manipulation: Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

Compositing: Adobe After Effects CS4 with the following plug-ins.

• Trapcode Particular
• Knoll Light Factory 2

Audio: Apple iTunes and Soundtrack Pro

High Definition video was shot with a Sony XDCAM HD and Sony XDCAM EX1

The project was produced in HD 1080p. DVD Studio Pro was used to make the standard definition DVD for distribution. Producing in HD 1080 assured that the project would not soon be orphaned by the public’s move to high definition video.

4) What advice can you give to people planning to work on this kind of projects?

In today’s video production environment, especially in education, all aspects of a project often fall to a single person. In my case I am a one person department. I shoot, edit, do graphics, composite, do sound design, and author the DVDs. I am fortunate to have good writers in our public relations department to provide me with scripts but it falls on me to make them come alive. Given that, I find that my projects are more successful if I allow them to take on a life of their own. In fact I feel a project that doesn’t take on its own life ends up being lifeless.

Once started the video may tell you that you need to take an element in a totally different direction than originally planned. Following that path rather than sticking with the approved plan or storyboard inevitably results in a much more effective product. In an educational environment this can often lead to some gnashing of teeth but in the end it is worth it, because the product is better. A producer should have a good grasp on what does and doesn’t work and how a video can be made better but often the case must be made for making changes. Sometimes it even requires cutting a section both ways to demonstrate a point. This can be time consuming but after a few successes clients generally begin relying on the producer’s advice.

It is also important to continually experiment. I try to spend 1/2 hour every day looking at new video and techniques. I read the online trade publications, go to online peer group forums and blogs, search for new sources of royalty free design elements, and generally try to keep a clear vision of what the successful people in production are doing. While much of it involves production values that are way above what can be done in an educational environment, it spawns ideas and results in productions that don’t look like yesterday’s video. Not constantly investigating and experimenting with contemporary styles, looks, and feels is a guaranteed pathway to the obsolete. Today more than ever.

If you want to check out another behind-the-scene look at video production in higher education, Mike Richwalsky — who will present a webinar on how to create better online videos on September 15, 2009 as part of the Online Videos 360 webinar series — has just posted another one on his blog about a video of his produced in just 3 weeks and targeted to the class of freshmen.

A Behind the Scenes Look At A Video Production | HighEdWebTech